22 SNOW BUNTING. 



the rest of the Buntings. They may be kept, and have even 

 been known to breed, in confinement. 



Their flight is described as low, performed in an undulated 

 line, by means of repeated flappings, and short intervals of 

 cessation; when they have arrived at a fitting place, they 

 wheel suddenly round, and alight rather abruptly, when 

 the white of the wings and tail becomes very conspicuous. 

 They run with great celerity along the sand, moving each 

 foot alternately, and when engaged in this manner, doubtless 

 in search of food, or of small sand and gravel, may be easily 

 approached within a few yards. They usually perch on a 

 crag or rock, the top of a wall, a rail, or a stack, and some- 

 times it is said, on trees: they roost on the ground. 



Their food consists principally of the different sorts of grain, 

 and the seeds of grasses and other plants, as also of small 

 mollusca, the caterpillars and chrysalides of insects, and insects 

 themselves. 



The note is low and soft, and it is uttered on the wing 

 when the male bird serenades his mate, rising a little way 

 into the air, and hovering about with expanded wings and 

 tail. 



The nest, which is made of dry grass, lined with hair and 

 a few feathers, is generally fixed in the crevice of a rock, or 

 among stones on the ground. Captain Lyons, R.N., found 

 one placed in the bosom of a dead Esquimaux child, a situation 

 suggestive of affecting thoughts, but the history connected 

 with which must remain unknown until that day when both 

 land and sea shall give up their dead. Others have been 

 found under the shelter of the drift timber, which is, alas! 

 but too frequently to be met with on the shores of the frozen 

 seas. How many a tale also does it tell with its expressive 

 though silent voice, 



Of those 



For whom the place was kept, 

 At board and hearth so long.' 



Fervently do I trust that the 'brave old oak' of the gallant 

 Sir John Franklin's trusty ships, may yet be found to have 

 afforded no shelter for the nest of the Snow-flake, but that 

 in the words of the still-used form of the old bills of lading, 

 'so may the good ship arrive at her desired port in safety.' 

 The eggs, from four to six in number, are greenish or 

 bluish white, encircled at the thicker end with irregular brown 

 spots, and many blots of pale purple: they are rather round 



